We found a boat on boat trader that was too good to be true. Chances are…that is usually the case. This woman/man – who knows since they would never give their phone number. We told them we would pay cash for the boat, and “Lara” told us some story about a divorce – her husband cheated on her and now she was stuck with the boat and wanted to get rid of it to pay for a house. Except, she dropped the price by $60,000. So, not sure why less money for a boat would help her buy a house? Already fishy. Then, she told us that connect-shippers.com would handle the entire transaction through an escrow. I’ve never heard of a shipping company brokering a sale. I told her we wanted to look at the boat in person, she said that we have a 7-day money back guarantee after delivery. So we looked them up and found the following:
Website is brand new, registered for the first time 3/11/2020. The registrant is private, but the country of origin is Panama. The address listed shows up on Google Earth as a parking lot between an energy company and a Chrysler plant. No Lara Barnes anywhere on social, in Michigan, or anything. The company doesn’t come up in searches, you have to type the address in. Nothing on the website mentions an escrow division or anything like that.
The connect-shippers sent us an invoice. I told them they were full of [censored] and I was reporting them to the FTC. Who wires a full amount for something prior to delivery like this? Please don’t fall for this crap.
Scammer’s phone (313) 312-9493
Scammer’s website connect-shippers.com
Scammer’s address Lara Barnes
Scammer’s email [email protected]
Country United States
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Initial means of contact Online classifieds (e.g., Craigslist)
A car ad is placed on Autotrader. You contact the “seller” for a vehicle advertised for sale on the site. The car is in Texas. The “seller” emails a response and provides photographs. You want to come and see the vehicle. Unfortunately, the “seller” is no longer in Texas as “she” has divorced and returned to “her” parents. Luckily though “she” has left the vehicle with connect-shippers. They run an escrow and delivery service, and will contact you to arrange delivery and give you the coordinates to wire funds to. You call them up “Martin” checks in with his “finance department” to check that they will mail you the escrow details. Once the funds are received, you will receive the vehicle in 3 days and then have 7 days to decide if you want to keep it. The wire details are only active for a few hours so you have to hurry to make the transfer. The seller becomes very active on email and is checking in too and “calling WSS” to check that you’ve got the invoice. The website looks good: WSS has won awards 3 years running and the testimonials from many happy customers are glowing: they will only ever use WSS or connect-shippers in the future. You check where the funds are being wired: The transfer turns out to be to an “LLC” with an address in a residential building in Philadelphia. Strange? The address of WSS turns out to be a Delta Airlines hangar in Minneapolis. Strange? If you don’t realize this before the wire has gone, good luck to you. When you google search using text from the website, there is another website with identical text. The address for this “shipping” company is a convenience store next to an out of town home improvement center.
We were just looking up a boat on boat trader and basically the same exact scenario. Except she said that she was divorced with three kids and now wants to get rid of her ex-husband’s most prized possession. Except this is all in Detroit, Michigan. Not Texas as your complaint was. Lol. And the website itself was only registered 3/11/2020 yet has been in business for over 20 years? hmmm…In addition, the registrant is in Panama. The address on their website is an empty parking lot next to Chrysler. BEWARE.
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